The Petroleum Activities Bill was passed in the National Assembly this morning after more than seven hours of debate. The National Assembly pulled an all nighter as it dealt with a number of bills before heading into its August recess.

Minister of Natural Resources, Vickram Bharrat, in defending the Petroleum Bill, said it comes at a time when the country’s oil and gas sector is growing at a rapid pace, and will further expand with the auctioning of 14 additional oil blocks in the coming months.

The Bill is intended to strengthen the regulatory framework governing the oil and gas Sector, and allow for greater transparency and accountability.

It replaces the Petroleum (Exploration and Production) Act of 1986.

“The Bill…provides significant improvement in the governance of activities related to petroleum exploration and production, as well to expand the scope of the Act to include midstream activities. And these are some of the new implementations, these are some of the new areas that are added to the bill that didn’t exist in the 1986 Act, transportation and storage of hydrocarbons.

The 1986 Act speaks mostly towards exploration production, now we are adding new dimension in the form of storage and transportation of hydrocarbons,” Minister Bharrat explained.

The Natural Resources Minister told the National Assembly that the Bill will pave the way for the full implementation and operationalization of the gas-to-energy project with the issuance of permits for the transportation and storage of hydrocarbons.

It was also explained that the Bill takes into account the environment, focusing on reducing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, notwithstanding the production of fossil fuel. 

“The new bill caters for the issuance of a geological permit, which would allow oil companies to now reinject carbon dioxide into reservoirs that are available, taking care of the emission that may caused destruction to the ozone layer, and as a result, climate change,” he said.

Attorney General Anil Nandlal, Minister of Home Affairs, Robeson Benn, and Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, Charles Ramson Jr. were among the Government MPs who offered support to the updated legislation.

However, ahead of the passage of the Bill, the Alliance For Change (AFC) submitted a slew of amendments and recommendations. Many of those were not taken on board.

APNU+AFC Member of Parliament, David Patterson, who had submitted the proposed amendments, told the House that the Opposition welcomes the introduction of the legislation. However, he said it fails to address a number of important issues.

“The Petroleum Activities Bill concentrates all of the power and decision making into the hands of the minster with no oversight from any other agency, not even the National Assembly. This Mr Speaker, is problematic from a Government perspective…The minister assigned with the responsibility of petroleum is listed 336 times in this Bill, the National Assembly sir, four times. And of these 336 times, nowhere directs the minister to law a single report in this National Assembly,” MP Patterson told the House.

The Opposition Parliamentarian said the Bill also fails to address issues of Labour and Local Content as well as the rights of indigenous people to consultation on onshore and offshore petroleum activities that may directly or indirectly affect them.

“Mr Speaker, no where in this Bill mentions anything about labour, and local content. Guyanese would have expected a caring Government to ensure that enshrined in this Bill would be a section reinforcing our drive for labour and local content in the application and approval process for petroleum licenses. The section on training sir, does not even require the licensees to adhere to our Labour and Local Content Act and Laws,” MP Patterson said.

He said non-adherence to the country’s Labour and Local Content Laws should have been grounds for the cancellation of a petroleum licence.

The Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton and MP Khemraj Ramjattan hammered the Government over its move to put excess power into the hands of the Minister.

The Opposition Leader made a strong case for the Bill to provide for the establishment of a National Petroleum Commission.

“Who would doubt if you have a professional corps managing the oil and gas sector that you would one, have less of the rancour that comes from this. Two, you will have the opportunity to put together a multidisciplinary group, you will have the opportunity to be guided as Minister by technical, competent people, based on the law,” the Opposition Leader reasoned.

The APNU+AFC had proposed a total of 31 Amendments to the Bill, but the Government used its majority to block the inclusion of those amendments.

The Bill was passed without any changes.

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